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54 SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2015 ence and helped to propel the world of production agri- culture forward. Transgenic or biotech crops are grown on 488 million acres in 28 countries by more than 18 mil- lion farmers. Today her work at Syngenta focuses on gene targeting. Gebisa Ejeta Developed Striga Resistant Sorghum While working at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Ejeta developed drought-tolerant and high- yielding varieties of sorghum that doubled yields. Later he developed another drought- tolerant sorghum variety that increased yields four to five times the national aver- age in Niger. In the 1990s he conquered Striga a parasitic weed that plagued African sorghum farmers. Robb Fraley Helped Create the First Transgenic Plant After leading groundbreak- ing molecular research on how plant bacterium could be adapted as a tool to insert genes from another organ- ism into plant cells Fraley lead the commercial launches of the first genetically modi- fied crops Roundup Ready soybeans and Bollgard insect- protected cotton. David Garst Owner Garst Seed Company Under Garsts direction the brand flourished and went on to bring many innovative corn solutions to the market. It led the way in developing herbicide-tolerant hybrids including the first IMI-corn. It also was among the first seed companies to offer European corn borer Bt control and herbicide tolerance together in one corn hybrid. Garst was acquired by Syngenta in 2004. J.C. Hackleman Soybeans Greatest Missionary Hackleman was responsi- ble for explosive growth of soybean as a crop in Illinois as well as educating count- less farmers on methods for increasing their yields. Monty Jones Bred NERICA Rice Varieties As head of the West Africa Rice Development Agencys Upland Rice Breeding Program Jones was among the first agricultural scientists to understand that Africa needed to do its own research and develop technologies adapted to its specific condi- tions. In 1994 he and his team succeeded for the first time in producing fertile progenies New Rice for Africa later dubbed NERICA. Thanks to NERICAs ability to increase farmers harvest by 25 to 250 percent Africa was cata- pulted almost overnight from relative obscurity among the international rice research and development community into the limelight. Gurdev Khush Creator of IR36 Rice Mentored by Henry Beachell Khush was head of plant breeding at the International Rice Research Institute and built IR36 off of IR8. IR36 is considered the most widely planted food crop in the world. Since its creation rice production increased from 257 million tons to 686 million tons per year. Khush is consid- ered on of the fathers of the Green Revolution. Yuan Longping The Father of Hybrid Rice Longping born in Beijing is responsible for developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. He was the first scientist to successfully alter the self-pollinating charac- teristics of rice and facilitate large-scale production of hybrid rice which has 20 percent more yield than elite varieties. His research institute has trained more than 3000 scientists from more than 50 countries and farmers around the world continue to ben- efit from his techniques with the spread and adoption of hybrid rice throughout Asia Africa and the Americas. Marc Van Montagu Helped Create the First Transgenic Plant From 1996 to 2013 global farmer income gained from biotech crops was an esti- mated 133.5 billion accord- ing to PG Economics. Owen Newlin Industry Leader As senior vice president of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Julie and Norman Borlaug Robb Fraley